1. Field of the Invention
This invention is directed generally to the binding and unbinding of books and in particular is concerned with improvements in the manner which hard and soft back covers are secured to and released from the pages of a book.
2. Description of Related Art
Sheet binding is one of the oldest known arts, and numerous methods and apparatuses are known in the art for permanently or temporarily securing sheets together. Most of these known methods and apparatus are only economically suited for high priced or high volume commercial printing operations.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,986,713 to Zoltner et al. (assigned to the same assignee and incorporate herein by reference) which describes a novel apparatus for applying preformed hard or soft covers to bound or unbound documents, provides a solution to many of these problems. However, this apparatus is still too complicated and uneconomical for the average business office environment. Particularly, this apparatus is poorly suited to very small (1-10) document sets and, due to its complexity, is susceptible to failure due to accidental misuse.
Further, due to the design of the Zoltner et al. device, the individual parts of the device must be robust enough to withstand the high forces generated within the Zoltner et al. device during the binding of a book. Consequently, the Zoltner et al. device is heavy and its parts are expensive both in materials and production costs. Finally, it is difficult for the average person to operate due to the high forces (up to 70 lbs.) which must be applied to a handle during the binding operation.